This isn't my interest, but a friend wanted my opinion of it and paid me to get it, so I figure I'd give GOG buyers the same review I gave him. As an adult VN it has an interesting premise and good looking females with the standard cutesy looks and overinflated breasts, as is typical. It promises good hentai action and the interesting premise, but it falls flat. The stories are repetitive and just bad. The action, what there is of it, is meh and the conversations just made me cringe. I am absolutely willing to agree with anyone who wants to say that the fact that I'm not an adult VN fan skews my perspective, but I'll still stand by my opinion. It's not very good as a free online hentai comic, and it's unacceptable at a $20 price point. If you're a big fan and a connoisseur of hentai VNs it might be worth picking up at a 50% sale. Otherwise, give it a miss. Sorry.
Advance note: I played this when it first came out at the end of my teen years. I have a lot of nostalgia attached to it for that reason, but I'll take off the nostalgia goggles for this review. This game was the first venture into the Mad Max post-apocalyptic style of games that have been a standard ever since. Whether the apocalypse is of the nuclear, biohazard, zombie, or other type, they all have the same premise: survive, get stronger, and overcome. So it is with this. The story is straightforward. As the offspring of the survivors of nuclear devastation, you were raised to be Desert Rangers. Your task is to go out into the wasteland surrounding the relatively clean Desert Ranger center and see what has become of the rest of the region. Along the way you'll fight a variety of things, from mad dogs and brigands up to semi-military sects, mutants, and worse. You'll have to find clues and follow hints to discover what civilization might still remain, and face the greatest threat to the survivors of the devastation. The story is well done and is a relief from the grinding that many games require in the hunt for better gear, more money, and new allies. The combat is similar to The Bard's Tale, also made by the same company as Wasteland, but the exploration is done from an overhead point of view like the Ultima series. Everything is comparatively straightforward and simplistic. Buy and sell at shops, have simple conversations with NPCs, and simple turn based combat. This isn't a bad thing, but it can perhaps frustrate players of newer games as the grind goes on. The game is a great one for its time, but it is overshadowed by its thematic children of the Fallout series, which really took the post-apocalyptic games to a new level. Wasteland is worth playing, especially at this price point. There'll be some fun even for the attention-deficit kids of today (speaking as an attention-deficit kid of yesteryear), even if they never complete the game itself.
The Witcher series of books are grim, dark, and almost as much horror as fantasy. The game here mirrors this. As you move your chosen character around the map you will be struggling against a variety of enemies, most of which aren't the sort of creatures a Witcher generally fights. Every action could have a negative repercussion, even if it is just a "Well, that wasn't as helpful as I had hoped" moment. The world is brutal, and the game can be too, though most obstacles can be overcome or at least worked around. Each of the four characters in the game have very different abilities. Each character requires a different mindset to be successful, so one that looks cool to you still might not be the best for you to play. Learning their possibilities can help you determine how to play as them and against them, since you're all in a rush to finish your quests first. And each character has their own set of quests. There's no group quest to be accomplished before the others do. One can provide assistance to another's quest, and gain needed victory points for it, but you've got your own irons in the fire to take care of. Of the six actions per turn four are the same no matter the character (move, move quickly, investigate, and rest/heal) while the other two are character specific and effectively the more powerful actions. But sometimes there are limits... The world of the Witcher is full of fights, wounds, and foul fates (curses). Wounds taken close off an action of the player's choice (except rest/heal). Foul Fates add a potential penalty the next time that action is done. The player chooses what actions to limit when wounded or cursed, but the more one lets these add up the more difficulty one has. The game balances strategy with luck of the dice, though even the randomness can be mitigated. It's not an easy game, but it is thematically accurate and very fun for Witcher fans.
Up front admission: I played this game for the first time as a teen in the 80s. This review has references to that perspective as well as my perspective of today. Ultima IV is not a great game for the modern youthful player who is used to games that challenge the reflexes more than the mind. Ultima IV doesn't have built-in cheats/hints available and there's only one level of play: difficult. You will need to take notes (I pretty well filled a 60 page spiral bound notebook with notes as a teen) and refer to them frequently as there is a lot of back and forth searching, talking, and then going someplace else to talk to someone you've talked to before, but now you know what you really need to ask them. The story is complex and interesting, and there are cameo appearances from real world people even if modern players may not get the references. The game can be a grind as one wanders the expansive world and the dungeons, but even if it can be tedious at times there's often a purpose to the grind as you hunt objects needed for the many quests required for the game, and some that aren't required but are just curiosities (and possibly an artifact of great evil...) One of the great challenges of the game is the moral code that is required for the main character to be successful. One has to act in ways that represent the eight virtues to attain the status of avatar needed for game completion. This was one of the first instances where the character's behavior really drove the progress of the game. Previously in the earlier Ultima games one could murderhobo their way through countryside and cities both, with nary a negative impact. It occasionally made for a good way of venting frustration after an annoying day at work or school, but in Ultima IV it would set you back hours and hours of gameplay. And no restoring from previous saves either. Ultima was one of the best and most challenging games of its day, and is one I still play for fun. Absolutely worth buying.
